The Young Turks - TYT's TURKS & JERKS 2022 - Hour 1

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

Hour 1: Join Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich, and David Shuster as they name the best and worst people of 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, welcome to Turks and Jerks. This is an annual tradition of TYT, the Turk of the Year, the Best Person of the Year, the Jerk of the Year. Well, that's self-explanatory. Jake Uger, Anna Kusparry, Brad Erlich, David Schwarz. Schuster, All-star Turks and Jerks panel, okay?

So I promise the audience that we would get surprises and sausages. What was that? I don't know. It's weird. Yeah, all right. So I begin to explain that now. So number one, one of the, I realize in preparing this year's Turks and Jerks, that secretly I've always thought that Turks and jerks deserve some level of,

reverence and seriousness? It's not a secret. Okay, it's not? You guys knew that? I'm serious. I'm serious. I'll be, I still don't know what, the sausage. I can't focus on anything until the sausage is out of the case or whatever they say.

So what I would, and those two things are related, because since I took it so seriously, like, I thought, like, we'll do probably less joke here on. I mean, it's turks and jerks, this is a serious business, right? Nothing more serious than the word jerk. Yeah, obviously. And the ongoing debate on whether it should be spelled with an E or a U. These are very serious matters. But on top of that, I thought, well, you can't let people know how the sausage gets made, right? How many accounting companies we've got to figure out who the Turk is and the jerk is, et cetera.

But on today's episode, you're going to get to see the sausage making with your own eyes. Wow, Skittles, okay? So now, what does that mean in this context? Like, since I take it seriously and we have to have an official jerk and an official jerk, we all have our picks and we're about to discuss them with you guys. But we have not made an official selection. And I'm going to have us debate on air. and do a little bit of, you know, pork barrel politics.

There's a lot of pork talk on today's show, okay? And some horse trading and see if we can get to a consensus. All right. So I was going to start with me, but since I've already talked a lot, Anna, what don't you tell us your Turk of the year first? That was an impressive moment of self-awareness, Jank. I commend you for that. I will say that my Turk of the year, because of the incredible

courage he showed during a tragedy and a crisis is Richard Fierro. Richard Fierro is the man who ran toward a mass shooter at a gay nightclub in Boulder, Colorado, as everyone was running away to find safety. And he, because of his actions, because of his courage, he was able to prevent more individuals from getting shot and killed by the mass shooter. I love stories involving individuals who showed tremendous amount of courage and strength, and that's exactly what he did. So kudos to him. My jerk of the year is- No, hold, hold, hold on jerk of the year. Are we going to debate on the year? Yeah, of course. Okay, fair. So first of all, Anna, you're going to be thrilled to find out that I had Fierro in my top four as well, which we'll get to

it a little bit, okay? Because you could use that as leverage here in bargaining for Fierro to be turn of the year. But before I reveal the mysteries of who the other three are, Ehrlich, who did you have his turn of me? My turk of the year is John Fetterman, who is the now junior senator from, or will, I don't know if he's been inaugurated yet, the junior senator from, I guess not until January, from Pennsylvania. This is a person who symbolizes the upside of fighting. This is someone who symbolizes what happens when you take it to the people who at one point where able to convince America that they were the fighters. This is someone who single-handedly dismantled

Donald Trump's favorite candidate this go-around, someone that Trump chose because he was a star versus someone who was just not a star, a working man, a guy who wears shorts in Pennsylvania in the cold, cold February days and helps people out. A guy who was like, I'm for unions, I'm for legalizing marijuana. I'm for a $15 an hour minimum wage. I'm for these things that I read the Columbia political review and said that in any other race, these progressive stances would have been his biggest obstacle. But you know what? It wasn't his biggest obstacle.

His biggest obstacle was the stroke that he had that brought more vitriol to him from people who pretend to be populace. And that's another thing that in standing up for himself, going through the adversity, he exposed the people on the right who pretend to be for the average working man and woman of this country who have to overcome things on a day-to-day basis and it outed people like, what's his name, Mehmet Oz, Dr. Oz for being absolutely fabricated.

And not just saying, well, I'm sorry that Dr. Oz is having some trouble right now. You'll have to ask him. Federman went on social media and said, no, this isn't crude. I tell you, this is a veggie plate. And we eat veggie plates in Pennsylvania, and he said it in a way, I'll never be able to say Pennsylvania, or however they do it. And so kudos to you, Turk of the year, John Federman, good luck, idiots, beaten that one.

Yeah, okay, so first of all, I did not have Federman in my final four, but I should have. Fetterman is an excellent selection. How did I forget about Fetterman? for all the reasons that Brett is saying, an excellent populist that showed Democrats how to fight. Extra surprises, the community has also chosen their Turk of the year. If you watch the show live, and you got to watch the show live, there's so many fun surprises. Later, we will tell you who the community pick. Is it one of the two that we've already selected?

We don't know about pins and needles. David Schuster, who's your turkey video? Well, what I wanted to do is I wanted to have, I wanted to spark a philosophical debate and perhaps argument among all of us about what exactly should be the ideal turk. Do we want it to be the celebrity? Do we want it to be somebody like a John Fetterman? Many of us don't get an opportunity to run for Senate. Most of us will never have the opportunity to show that courage of running towards gunfire towards a mass shooting, something great like that. So I wanted to make my turk something a little bit more accessible, something that would symbolize. is the change that all of us can try to make in the world around us. So my Turk of the year is a symbol of something we can all do, somebody who can put it on the line, who can say, you know what? I'm going to step out of my comfort zone the way Jank Yugar did a couple of years ago and run for Congress.

But because it's 2022, my Turk of the year is not Jenk. It's Michael Schur from our own TYT. He put himself out there. He ran for Congress. He was not successful, but he had a whale of a time doing it. And he showed all of us that it's not about winning or losing. It's about getting into the game and making changes and doing things that might be a little bit out of our comfort zone and trying to make a difference. So we can have the debate over Turk of the year.

We can have the debate over celebrity culture and whether we should reward celebrity culture or not. But my pick was Michael Shore. So, David, you know that Jank is the CEO of TYT, right? Not Michael Shore. Right. But Jank did not run for Congress this year. If this had been Turks of the year back in what, 2020, then I would have had Jank Uger. But it was Michael Schuer who among us decided he was going to put himself out there and run for public office and shake hands.

And by the way, I have to say to Michael Schroer, the most fun that I had other than doing all these videos and all these shows that I do with you guys, when I was out there canvassing with Michael Schwer and talking to Pete, the guy who was smoking weed and was complaining about the mail, that was riot. And to me, that's what politics is all about. It's about getting to know your constituents, your neighbors, trying to understand what's on their mind. What are their issues and addressing their issues if you can. Okay, I love it. And David's getting credit for it anyway, Anna, okay? Sure.

Yeah, I'm sure Michael sure will win Turk of the Year. Yeah, I'm sure that's going to happen. Well, okay, listen, listen, first of all, it's an honor to be nominated. And second of all, the community does have a TYT host as one of the finalists for Turg of the year. So hold, you never know, hold. And again, you don't have to make a choice between Michael Scherer and somebody else. You can choose between do we want a celebrity? And all of us would love to be celebrities, but how many of us actually get that opportunity?

Or do we want somebody who we can all relate to? Somebody who's just like us who can say, you know what? I'm going to try to go out there and make a difference. Which actually leads perfectly into my final four. So as I told you, I had Fierro in there, and he's a regular guy, but I had a lot of regular guys. regular guys and that happens every year in turk of the year you know part of the reason is because there aren't a lot of famous people who do good things for americans and that is it's really unfortunately every year Turk of the year is very difficult jerk of the year is difficult for

the opposite reason there's so many of them that are in the public eye right but for my turks of the year i had fiero the starbucks union organizers okay because they made such a big difference So there's now a chain reaction of people that are organizing unions. They did it on their own without the help of a big union to support them. And they did it anyway. They were incredibly courageous. A lot of them got fired. And they've started a movement.

I think they're amazing. And so I was, you know, I thought for sure I was going to pick them. In the beginning, I thought for sure I'm going to pick Fierro. Then I thought for sure I'm going to pick Starbucks union organizers. Then I thought of the teachers as well. and not just because a lot of them have started standing up for themselves and going on strike and we covered those stories, but also because they're attacked nonstop by the right wing. We have this insane war on teachers and the teachers have almost no backup and they're sitting

there having to take it while their funding gets pulled. They're amazing American heroes. And then finally, the fourth category I had was Sandy Hook families because they decided to fight back. They took Alex Jones to court and they made him pay. And it's not just about Alex Jones. There was regular Americans saying, well, if no one in power is going to do anything about it. We can't take it anymore. We're going to do something about it. Okay. And we're not going to do something about it in the crazy right wing way with physical violence, etc. No, we're going to do it through the court system and we're going to seek and we are going to get justice. And they did. So I had them winning Turk of the year, the Sandy Hook families that took Jones to court and got justice for themselves, for their children, and for all of us.

Okay. So now, here comes the incredibly difficult part, which is us trying to figure out, all right, out of all those wonderful people, who should win Turk of the year. And normally we would do this behind the scenes and we go, Anna, I don't know, what do you think? We got a big one of them, right? But this year, look at us being crazy transparent and doing it on air. So, David, you had Michael Schur. Let's be honest, he's not going to win. Yeah, yeah.

So there was the Sandy Hook families. And then Michael Scho filled out like some paperwork and like went and knocked on doors. And then there was a Sandy Hook family. Right. But there is something that joins them together. And that's why I think I will move my vote if I have to from Michael Schor to the Sandy Hook families. And that is it's possible to do something extraordinary, even if you are a regular ordinary citizen. And I would argue that, you know, look, if you're seeing your, you know, having your kid shot at their elementary school, there's nothing ordinary about that.

And hopefully none of us will ever have to deal with that. But the fact that these families, which are only about 20 minutes actually from where I live here in Connecticut, the fact that they've been able to persevere the way they have for the last 10 years and that they've been able to do this through the courts. And for all the reasons Jen mentioned, I think there is something remarkable about that. And it is something that is within the realm and the grasp of all of us, which is the reason why I picked Michael Shore, because we can all relate to, well, many of us can relate to being a parent, to worrying about our kids. I think we can all relate to the idea that we have opportunities sometimes that are forced on us or sometimes that we choose in life where we can try to make a difference. And sometimes it's uncomfortable. It rips your heart out. It may not even be successful, but you put yourself out there and you try.

And that's where I see the connection between Michael Shore and the St. And I will gladly say, Jank, I'm right there with you. I'm convinced I move my vote to the Sandy Hook families. Damn, damn. Okay, you see, that's called strategic. I know he's from Connecticut. I got the Connecticut vote locked in. So this is horse trading.

All right, Casper, you seem to be moved by a couple of my suggestions. What do you think? I think that, you know, you're bringing up an important contender or contenders with the Sandy Hook families. I will say that I appreciate, I watched every minute of that trial, one of the first one that took place. The second one, I didn't have enough time. But it was incredible to watch. I love watching Alex Jones experience some consequences for his actions.

That was pretty sweet. And it sent a message that if you're in the media and you're, you know, exploiting a tragedy and defaming individuals who suffer that tragedy for profit, there might be consequences down the line. And that's an important message to send. However, I am going to stick to Fierro because, well, let me give you a quick story. And I'll explain what's like motivating my support for him as Turk of the Year. Just recently, I flew back to Los Angeles from Florida. And as I was at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, there was a young man who came out of the men's restroom and he collapsed to the floor and was suffering from a seizure. and there were a lot of people around

and no one was doing anything. I was seated at like a restaurant but I could see everything and I wanted to like jump over the like railing to like go see if I could do something but everyone else they were just like weirdly standing there and just staring at him and at one point I was like

somebody effing do something what the F like I just like yelled it and at that point people went to action probably because they felt embarrassed that they were being called out they were closer to him and weren't doing anything Anyway, my point is, I've now seen so many instances of people in need of help with all sorts of people standing around either filming it or doing nothing about it. And I'm sick of it.

I'm so tired of this gross environment we live in where we're not looking out for one another. And yeah, sometimes looking out for someone else or a group of people who need your help could mean risking your own life or sacrificing something. and in this case, Fero risk losing his own life to stop a mass shooter when he was unarmed himself. That is incredible. That is an act of bravery and courage that I wish we would see more of. It doesn't necessarily have to be that extreme. But the message there is help people out as much as you can. Look out for each other. That's what actually causes or leads to real unity in the country, if you ask me. Yeah, look, that's the unifying theme that I had too with Fierro, the teachers, Starbucks union organizers,

Sandy Hook families, they're all regular Americans that are looking out, not just for themselves, but for others. So a lot of compelling points. Brett, what do you think? I keep thinking about people running into the face of danger,

people who've experienced the ultimate tragedy in their lives and fighting back. But then I keep coming around and Michael Shore knocked on like 100 doors. And it's really... A thousand, at least 1,000. 10,000.

I'm just kidding. I love Michael Shore. I have the most Michael Shore merchandise. This is an accessible example. We can all go out and knock on doors. We can all go out and shake hands. We could all go out and run for office. How many of us get that opportunity to run towards gunfire or to sue somebody over the defamation of the death of your child?

And that's, you know, so it's just look, a philosophical argument about do we want a Turk to be something that's an example that we can all access. or something that we can all hope we would access in the most extreme circumstances. Here's my thing. If we give Michael Shore the Turk of the year, he's not going to run for Congress again and win. So he's going to be like, oh, I achieve the ultimate goal. Change has been made. I'm going to siphon Michael Shore and all Michael Shore bits away from the show now. Because I have bought an amazing shirt, which is really good material from him as well as a coozy, which works wonder. on my beers. I'm going to go with the guy who ran into gunfire and then revealed himself to be the most down-to-earth caring human being who embodies self-sacrifice towards the greater good.

And I also host a show called Happy Half Hour, where we have good news and good booze. And I don't know if you've seen the interviews, this guy's done, but he also works at a brewery, or the family has a brewery. And so that's, if you're in. into the merch situation, I say go and support the brewery that he has. I think that person really takes it to the next level because of A, it's one person. It's a moment where it defines you or you define it. And I don't think I would have it. I know for certain I wouldn't have it in me to fight back in that way or really to rally the troops around him to fight back in the way that he did. I'm going to side with Anna. And not just because if I don't, she can physically

assault me because we're both in the studio. Okay. So I promise surprises on this special. And we're about to have a massive one. There's a twist coming up here that I didn't even expect. So we've got a two-two tie here between the Sandy Hook families and Richard Fierro. I'm going to change my own vote, even though I was in a tie against myself. And I'm going to Richard Fierro, who's doing now with the winner? Hero. Okay. Hero.

How out. Good news and good booze. You're right, Brett. Okay. Now, let me tell you why. And then they'll do the last surprise. So number one, he was already in my top four anyway. But number two, I think we're all saying the same thing.

You know, everyday Americans making a difference, he's just a perfect symbol of that, right? And so it wasn't over a long stretch of time like the Starbucks union organizers, et cetera. It was just that one moment where he's like, no, I'm gonna do the right thing and go all the way as far as risking my own life to help others. And remember what Bernie Sanders ran on. He said, help someone you don't know. No. And that's exactly what Richard Fierro did. And the last piece of it is, I like picking people over a group of people, even though I do it all the time. I do the group of people all the time because I so want to reward them for their wonderful actions. But in this case, I think Richard Fierro is the right way to go. So he wins among the host. The last twist is the actual target of the year is picked by the community. And that's later in the show. Oh my God. You got to watch this thing live. This is amazing. All right, we got to take a break. When we take after the break, we're going to go to jerk of the year. And then, of course, again, we have the community votes a little bit later in the program.

The audience, by the way, had two and a half of the Turks that we have discussed here. Who did they pick? Who were the ones that we didn't have? Amazing. Coming up with a song. Okay, welcome back to the august Turks and Jerks of the year presentations. Jake Uger, David Schuster, Anna Kaspar and Brett Ehrlich with you guys. Obviously, you're checking out David's videos on Rebel Headquarters. Brett also has videos on Rebel Headquarters, let alone happy half hour. Anna is, of course, ubiquitous.

So now we start Jerker the Year, which is far more difficult than Turk of the Year, because there are tons and tons of candidates. So David Schuster, I start with you this time. Well, this one, my philosophy behind Jerker the Year is, who's the one who everything sort of streams out of? And look, I had, you know, I've had Kanye on my top four for jerk of the year. I've had, you know, Elon Musk. But to me, without this other figure, there are no high-profile jerks.

They're not as high-profile as they would have been. So I went with Donald Trump. We have never had a president in the United States quite like him. We've never had one that was impeached twice. We've never had one that's had a criminal referral to the Justice Department from a congressional committee. We're probably, he'll probably be the first one to be indicted. But beyond all of that, his lack of class, his tackiness, the way he's been grifting, the lies that he has said repeatedly, the fact that he just said a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to, you know, tear up, revise the Constitution, he continues to lie about the 2020 election. He continues to give platforms to other horrible people. So to me, I think he's one of the worst jerks in American history. And we've had some remarkable ones. But he just stands. And some people would say, well, why go with Donald Trump is not in office? Why paying any attention to him? Because he's still. a former president and the fact that the United States has even a former president that behaves the

way he continues to behave to me is so far out there and is so remarkable and so crazy that I think everything stems from Donald Trump. Yeah, those are all excellent points for Trump being a jerk of the decade, maybe even, no, it doesn't get the century. Well, it's a fresh century, so maybe he could. So, and he has one jerk of the year before and all this, You're right. De Kaini would not have done what he did probably or Elon without Trump to begin with.

So now we go to Brett. Brett, who's your pick? My jerk of the year. There's a lot in the running. There's the Matt Walsh was on the list for me. I wasn't quite sure what to pick. I had some Mehmet Oz in the background floating. But for

me, the jerk of the year was one man's trash, another man's treasure. This category of jerk of the year was glossed over by David Schuster on his way to choosing with a little twist to take something from jank. My jerk of the year is not Elon Musk. That's too easy. My jerk of the year is all of those Elon Musk stands out there. Because Elon Musk is just a tiger being a tiger. He's just a douche being a juke. There's Robin right there.

That person on the bottom of that graphic, Robin, the stock image queen was on happy half hour once. I met her. She's fantastic. Robin Lums Dino's going to head. Why are you on her then? I love her. No, no, she's great. She's with stock images of like a stand.

I love it. She'd be so happy to be in there. Okay. But the Elon Musk is just a rich guy doing rich guy stuff. Grifter's going to grift. But if you're an Elon Musk stand thinking you're just the temporarily inconvenienced millionaire in the American economy, you're worse.

Because he's not stealing from everyone. He's stealing from you. His usage of Twitter to turn it into a way for him to make more money off Doge coin and got you to buy it and you to give him that money of yours. You are not a guy whose dad had a stopover in a plane that he had, sold the plane and bought an emerald mine. Your mom is not a model. Probably, but she's gorgeous.

Is his mom a model? His mom's a model. Oh. What? His dad. And how do he turn out that way? Oh, he is Party Mike. I don't know if you guys know Party Mike from Mike's college, but Party Mike is a nerd who somehow is in this insulated environment of nerd school and then goes and buys like four bottles of booze, pours it out, fills it up with water, fills it up with highlighter, gets a blacklight and it's like, party in my room, nerds.

And the nerds idolize him. And in the meantime, he's taking things that he might have been good at. He's suffering the consequences. He's lost $100 billion. What have you lost in denying the reality of his obvious failures, opportunism, hatefulness, and grift? You've lost your integrity. That's worse.

So you, the Elon Musk, stands? You're majorics of the year. You know, it's super annoying, too. And they're annoying. Yeah, it's like number one for me. Like, just shut up already. Like, have some self-respect. Yeah.

Yeah. Anna, you're up. Go for it. All right. I mean, those arguments were quite compelling. My Turk of the Year, first, I like that you shared your philosophy. Philosophies are important. So when I think about people in general, I think about how many of them I dislike.

And so this was a very challenging part of this process for me. And I was like, okay, well, who has done the most damage? Emotional damage, but not just emotional, just damage in general. And the person who has been like the multinational damager of the year is Vladimir Putin. And his invasion into Ukraine, which we have now spent tens of billions of dollars on, that has had a ripple effect on pretty much everything, including our relationship with Saudi Arabia. It has unfortunately strengthened it because of the oil production issue and how desperately Biden wanted to convince the Saudis to produce more oil to get prices at the pump lower. MBS should not be treated well by American politicians, and yet he is because we unfortunately

rely on them for their oil production. Vladimir Putin, of course, has caused so much damage to the people of Ukraine, specifically targeting civilians in this disgusting and brutal war. It has led to other supply chain issues, so both economically and when it comes to the cost of human lives, Vladimir Putin has done the most damage. So I will name him, jerk of the year. Okay. So Putin is a twist here, because number one, I did not have in my final four. That was a mistake. Well, Jank, it's because you're not into McCarthyite smears. That's why. Well, we'll get, we'll, we'll, and so, but I will amend that mistake as I do my final four here.

But there's a twist with Putin and a potential controversy later with the audience audience voting that we're going to reveal near the end of the show. So let me give you my top four, though. I had Elon Musk, so unsurprising there, a lot of, vote for Elon Musk, Joe Mansion. Now, I let that one sink. Chris's cinema. Okay. And she actually left the Democratic Party after sinking their agenda at the end. And someone else that was mentioned before, Kanye West. So I don't think we should underestimate, Kanye. But now, then I heard you guys, I'm actually going to do a late-minute substitution here. we're calling in Putin, the Southpaw, from the dugout, and we're pulling cinema. Cinema's like, why? And she goes to my decision, but she has been booted from the final four of Jerk of the Year.

I did Twitter polls. I did Elon Musk versus Joe Manchin. And you know how Musk always says, I will abide by the results in this poll, even though he never means it. I said, I will not. abide by the results of the poll. And Musk finished above Mansion. And I think Kanye beat cinema. I don't even remember. And it doesn't matter because I'm not abiding by. Okay. So it was super hard to narrow those things down because Mansion was devastating this year. Devastating. And then Musk clownorama. But, you know, he, Musk has kind of been devastating to himself. More than he has to the rest of us. It's been fun to watch.

Yeah, he's been kind of fun to watch. But without any of the heartburn of Trump, because Trump actually affects things, he actually became president of the United States and had power over people. Whereas Elon Musk is his own little train wreck. And we're all watching him smash into himself over and over again. So anyway, at the end of the day, I actually picked out of all those horrible people, Kanye. Because he brought anti-Semitism back in a massive, massive way. And not a little way.

And he kind of did for anti-Semitism what Trump did for racism. And that is a hell of a thing to let out of the bag, right? And so I think he did massive damage. He's a terrible guy. And I'm thrilled to have Kanye West as my jerk of the year. Okay. Now, this is when we do horse training here to try to pick who the horse, who the jerk of the year is between the four of us. Normally we do this behind the scenes, but this year we're being transparent and doing it ahead of.

No, there are no accounting firms. There's nothing official. There's no Doppler 4,000 to calculate the votes. Dominion has not rigged this vote. You will see it with your own eyes. So last time I tried to bring Schuster in in the beginning. And since you had Kanye on your list, I figured I might start with you again. So David, maybe you want to reconsider to Kaye? Well, look, I do think you put it well in terms of Kanye bringing back anti-Semitism and legitimizing it for a lot of people. And that's really, that's horrific.

But for the reasons as I said before, I think both Kanye and Elon, they were elevated because of Donald Trump. So in my view, but I will say that Elon, I think. did one of the biggest jerk things of the year other than start a war. I think it was Elon Musk who promised the United Nations. Look, I'll give you $10 billion to solve world hunger. Tell me how you would do it. And they spent months coming up with this detail blueprint and plan and they sent it to Elon and he never responded. He didn't even respond. He even say thank you. What a jerk. That is such a jerk moves. And for that for that reason alone, I think this guy probably deserves it.

However, in the spirit of going big, which is where I was going with Donald Trump, credit to Anna, because I do think, look, Vladimir Putin started an actual war. He has literally cost hundreds of billions of dollars, whether it's supply chain, whether it's energy, whether it's the tens of thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine, whether it's the 100,000 Russian troops that have been killed in this meat grinder of Vladimir Putin's, it's just to me, it's, you go big when you're talking about a jerk, and I think Anna's got it exactly right. I would like to point out that Anna's already won one of these.

Sorry, I make good arguments. It's the power of persuasion. And so I would like to not be fair where it's like best idea wins because this is not, I don't know what it is, something, something. We're making sausage, guys. We're making sausage. They're sausage. Okay, grudges happen, backroom wheeling and dealing, except it's happening right in front of you guys. Obama promised this that you would get to see it.

Well, we're finally delivering it. So, Brett, having taken your grudges into account and settling scores, Are you thinking of changing your vote? Do you want to think about who else that you might side with here? So listen, when I was involved in the Rotten Tomato Show, we had to make a lot of lists all the time. And if you really want to know how the sausage is made, you have to look at what your final lit, you know, people, when they're making the list, they do make a lot of decisions like, okay, we're going to have, you've got to have things people know, and then somewhere you've got to have something that's a little obscure. So here, if you're doing your top five, number three is probably something that not as many people have heard of. And the real, like, movie fans are going to be like, yes, they are movie fans too. In this situation, I would kind of want to round it out with someone that is, we've already got someone no one knew before the beginning of the year.

And we got a very small but universal feeling experience as our Turk of the year. Someone, we don't know what we would do in that situation. They rose to the occasion in a small room with one person doing a horrible thing to that one room. And that, you know, we all kind of have to, it's universal in that way that we kind of look at how that experience must have been. It is very compelling to want to put Vladimir Putin as your jerk because that is the big thing that happened geopolitically this year. I would say Trump this year, if I were to look at that, you know, not having myself involved in it, I'd say Trump is kind of, the whole theme of this year in the election was the Trump is over party. So I'd probably take him down. Kanye West and Elon, more than Elon Musk even, has that like recency bias to it. So I would let that lifts up Putin in your overall calculus. Your recency bias of this kind of just happening within the last month and a half makes it feel bigger. And it people, he's literally. literally missing right now. The other thing about the Kanye is there are

claims of mental illness there that I don't think are too unsubstantiated to factor in here. So I'm not sure I want to make my jerk of the year. Someone who is a person suffering from mental illness, even though he, you know, I forget what show I was. I think it was watchless today. Rayvana kind of did a really good analysis of like, if you're seeking help, that's one thing.

You lose points if you're not seeking help, even if you're struggling with a mental illness and committing these like kind of crimes against human Hey, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with the TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play?

Get up to $2,700 when you open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business. Visit TD.com slash small business match to learn more. Conditions apply. Kennedy. So that's one thing. So it comes down to Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin for me. I'm really biased toward my own selection. But I do think the juxtaposing the small thing to the biggest thing geopolitically this year, I would kind of throw my vote behind Vladimir Putin. And that kind of actually makes me the Turk of the year, because I've taken my own opinions out of it. So I think I

should get more credit, maybe some kind of honorary reward for doing that. I think we should take one moment, though, to acknowledge what a lot of people have been saying for the last couple of days, and that is, look, if Elon Musk or Kanye or Vladimir Putin own Southwest Airlines, they would win this jerk of the year. Hands down, the number of people who got inconvenience who had their holidays ruined because Southwest Airlines a couple of years ago spent $6 billion on stock buybacks instead of building up the infrastructure, their scheduling system, which would have stopped the problems they had this week because of the storm. What corporate jerks they are. But anyway, that's a whole other issue. But I just want to say, I recognize, for everybody who had their Christmas

ruin, I hear you. Yeah, Southwest, you know, they had an outdated scheduling system, and that's why they were hurt by storms because storms were invented five years ago. Okay, that's right. And so, look, guys, time for rulings. Okay, number one, I rule out Southwest as recency bias, extreme recency bias. It has been eliminated. Number two, Brett's, pleading to be considered some sort of honorable mention for Turk of the year is soundly rejected. Wait, wait, wait. You don't get to be the arbiter of that. I'm totally okay with debating that because I'm very happy to give him the honorable mention if his vote means that I win both categories. As long as I'm getting something. Okay, Casper. You get a participation trophy.

I'll take it. Yeah, what are you, a Confederate general? Okay, so Casper, I like your wheeling and dealing. you get points for that, but your request to give Brett that honor is also denied. Your request to debate that also deny. Okay. So now we get to the question, oh, by the way, one more thing, Brett Erlich using the mental illness card. I'm showing me a yellow card on that. No, it's a fair point. And I like the nuance in what he said. I hear you. It is an intelligent point. It is a compassionate point. Nonetheless, yellow. card. And here's the only, no, as a, as one of, apparently the Jews are, are in the bottom of the screen. I don't understand what that is with the way this show set up, but, um, it's a little

weird. It's a little weird. Hey, it's the first time for everything. You know what I mean? Okay. So, listen, the reason, look, but hold on, hold on, Brett. The reason why behind Brett's head? Yeah. The reason why. I'm giving the yellow card is because, look, that point is unfortunately too easy to make. Did Hitler not have mental health issues? He was clearly not mentally well. I mean, look at the speeches, look at the actions, et cetera. So unfortunately, a lot of jerks of the year could throw up their hands like, oh, okay, mental health issues. Does Trump not have mental health issues? No, but Jank, like he's diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which he is specifically refusing to get treatment.

for. And so, and it makes you think paranoid things. And he, like, he has convinced himself that he doesn't actually have bipolar disorder, that it was a Jewish conspiracy to take his creativity away or whatever. Like, stupid, stupid. He's clearly mentally ill. I'm not excusing what he said. I think it's a nuanced argument. I think Brett hit the right point there, where it's like, no, you don't get a pass. But do you really want to name Jerk of the Year a guy who clearly has a mental health issue. I think that's a fair point to make. Yeah. Okay, now watch this shocking into this dramatic situation. I've decided at the end. Anna wins again. God damn it. Oh, that's not fair. And the whole country is ripped apart by this and it's a controversy. We don't know why we let

Anna win twice. At least she didn't win the tiebreaker this time. It's not a tiebreaker. And you know, Times like this wonder, or at least you went through and swear this story. That was that's true. I love the celebration. A mass murderer invaded a country causing chaos and destruction. The winner is Vladimir Putin. Come on down. Look, I get that I already won, but there was one other point that I wanted to make that I forgot to make.

Bernie Sanders was revisiting the, you know, war powers resolution to basically take support for the Saudi-led coalition. away when it comes to the war in Yemen. But because of this stupid invasion into Ukraine and because the U.S. needs Saudi Arabia and its oil, Biden like pulled Bernie Sanders aside and was like, be cool, be cool. Don't, don't do this. It's, so a lot of bad things have happened as a result of that. I got you. But you're talking past close. I know. We're re-habulating as you speak. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. So, all right. Now, Putin is going to be very relevant in the audience decision on who the actual jerk of the year is as well. My God, we are all on pins and needles tonight.

We're going to need everybody to stay right here because we're going to come right back with audience choices. All right, we're back. What in the world? Normally, the brakes take longer than this. I told you, surprises, secrets and sausages. And I think that I have really delivered here. We're back on Turks and Jerks, Jane Hugar, Anna Conspiram, Brett Ehrlich, David Schuster, and so apparently took an unsanctioned break. Yellow card.

He didn't have timeouts. Chris Weber over there. No offense, Schuster. Chris Webb. I had just enough time, though, during that break to fire up my space laser. So we're all set. Lots of excellent references there. and I allow the yellow card, and I will now miss the next match.

Oh, no. So now, I promise you guys' audience participation here. First of all, let's just go to a super chat real quick for some nominations that came in during the show. They will not count because the voting has already happened. Yellow card to the audience. But nonetheless, I will read it to you. Prague, Kansas wrote in, I nominate Greg Pallas for exposing the continuing voter suppression in Georgia and Texas. Good point, interesting point, a little bit of a Michael's

shirt kind of pick, yellow card. Okay, no, God bless. Podcasts then came in with an excellent choice for a jerk of the year. The majority of SCOTUS. Interesting, interesting. Hold for more on that later. Nina Turner's Pet Dragon wrote, sorry guys, but Turk goes to the mom that rushed into the school unarmed to save her kids at Yuvaldi and jerk goes to the cops at Yuvaldi all 400 plus of the devastating point, Nina Turner's Pet Dragon.

Devastated. And Edwin said that during the break. He was like, by the way, what about the Yuvalde mom who went in there and got her kid? That was a good point. Incredible. Yeah. Just Edwin deserves him as well. Nina Turner's Pet Dragon. We're not even doing live during the main

show. We don't, like, none of this is sanctioned. A hundred dollar gift card from blue acre. Out of nowhere. Okay, email rewards at tyt.com to claim your award. I'm positive. You're a member. You got to be a member, but I know you are. So congrats. Nobody saw that coming. Twisting everywhere. So speaking of a twist. Now we give you the nominees from the audience side. Okay. So for Turk of the Year, they had, no, you know what, I'll save Turk of the Year. There's nothing but twist in this show. Jerk of the year, they had Elon Musk.

Okay, that makes sense. We all had them. Putin, okay, two for two. They agreed with us. We didn't technically have Elon Musk, but I did have him in my top four. And then they had two different ones. One was Marjorie Taylor Green. Good point.

Good point. Interesting. We didn't have her. They did. And these are all like the consensus nominees from the audience. we did two different polls on t yot.com and on youtube there's a third poll coming up in the bonus episode live what the world is happening on today's show you got to be a member now by the way if you're a member now you spin the wheel and you can get a membership basically for free or more than free if you win the blue apron

gift card which is very very possible i know because i set the percentages uh so or you can win shop t yt dot com stuff or twist sharp coffee stuff anyway great time to be a member because we're going to reveal the actual winners the audience winners in the bonus episode and then we have to twist poll at the end okay now the turk nominees for uh audience nominees for turk of the year are john fetterman so they were thinking along the same similar lines as us on that one starbucks workers so we went two for two there agreed but get a little of the last two twists Zelensky duh

how did we miss Zelensky how did we miss Zelensky okay he hasn't won the war yeah but pretty good job of holding off one of the biggest empires in the history of the world

and doing it incredibly bravely and by the way there would be good symmetry of Zelensky won Turk of the year and Kanye won jerk of the year extra rubbing a little bit more salt into to Kanye's wounds. Okay. And then their final selection, though, is right with contravacy.

Anna Casparia. Yeah, definitely controversial. Controversial and crazy. So can we take me out of the running completely? Nope. It's already it. TYT.com slash polls. Thank you to anyone who decided to vote for me.

You guys are nuts. But thank you. Well, it is lovely. you didn't even, unlike other brave T.Y.T. hosts, you didn't even run and not at all win or come close to winning in a congressional race. I don't get it. Then again, she didn't deliver that Bible speech in a congressional race. I guarantee you put Anna Kasparian with that speech in front of any major crowd. She wins an heartbeat. Yeah. I mean, she won the internet. Last we checked over 58 million views on that speech. But funny enough, you might not actually win in a real election.

Because what would happen is the media would set upon you and say you're anti-Christian and you're the worst and you're uncivil. So we've been through that before. But Anna, whether you like it or not, you are among the nominees. Now, did they actually pick you as the winner? That's so much drama. And look, I would do it right here, except we really are running out of time and we do have a hard end here. So we are going to do it in the members only section, t.yt.com slash join. But I know that feels illegal too.

Like, wait, really? You can announce the actual winners that the audience picks of Turk and Jerk of the Year in the bonus episode? Look, membership does have privileges. And you guys are the ones who picked it. So, t.yt.com slash join. Or you could hit the join button below on YouTube. On YouTube, on Twitch, you can go to t.yt.com slash prime. If you got Amazon Prime, it's free for you there.

I mentioned Twitch because Twitch has the twist that we're talking about. That's going to happen in the bonus episode, involves Twitch. Interesting. So will Anna beat Zelensky for Turk of the Year? Oh, God. That's insane. Wow. Can we put your, is that a new shirt? That's a new shirt, Yugar, right?

Me? No, ironically, it's an old shirt. When I get sick, I run out of shirts because my shirts are actually at the office. And I pick an old one I'm wearing. If it were a new one, I'd say, that's definitely the Turk of the year. Like, that should be the, yeah, the fact that you have a new shirt. No. No. In fact, I haven't bought a shirt in years. I give myself a yellow card. Oh, no, I'm eliminated. Yellow card, you got a yellow card. We got to go. We got to go. T.Y.t.com slash join. Find the exciting

conclusion right now. Members. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work. Listen ad-free. Access members-only bonus content and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at Apple.com. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.